1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roll tape for use for a label tape and a printer for printing characters or symbols on this roll tape.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, there are printers for preparing any label by printing a character string on a tape member based on character data inputted from a keyboard or received from other equipment.
In these printers, there are various types of printers including a printer that can accommodate a printing tape and which includes a printing device, a display and an input keyboard and a printer that accommodates a printing tape and includes a printing head such as a thermal head without having a display and an input keyboard and which prints characters or symbols on the printing tape while feeding it out by a feed-out roller.
In addition, as to printing tapes to be used, there is a cassette-type printing tape that houses an ink ribbon and a label tape and which is configured to be loaded in a printer. Additionally, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 11-42821, there is a printing tape which is made of a roll of paper such as a tape adapted to take print, and only the roll of paper is loaded in a tape accommodating portion of a printer.
Then, as to printers, there are many printers configured to receive for use tapes of different widths.
As printing tapes for use in such printers, tapes of different widths are used, and among them, tapes which are 6 mm wide, 12 mm wide, 18 mm wide and 36 mm wide are used much. Although tapes of such different widths are used, in the cassette-type printing tapes, a common cassette case configured to accommodate tapes of different widths is provided for use of these tapes of different widths in the same printer. In the roll tape-type printing tapes, a common roll shaft configured to support tapes of different widths is provided.
In the roll tape-type printing tapes, only a tape core is disposed after a printing tape has been consumed, which contributes to the conservation of natural resources. However, when printing tapes having different tape widths are used in a predetermined type of printer, a tape core has had to be commonized for these printing tapes so that not only a printing tape having a narrow tape width but also a printing tape having a wide tape width can be loaded in a tape accommodating portion of the printer.
Because of this, the printing tape having a narrow tape width is wound around the tape core having a wide width, leading to the waste of natural resources. In addition, it has been found from time to time that it is difficult to wind the narrow printing tape around the wide tape core with the center of the former aligned with the center of the latter.